Who do I call if my car was impounded?
Impounded vehicles may be released at the information desk,
405-297-1189, on the first floor of OKC Police Headquarters.
Title or registration is required as well as a valid drivers license. If the
car was impounded due to an accident, you will need the case number of the
accident report.

Where do I pay my ticket?
Tickets and citations issued by the OKCPD can be paid online, by mail
or in person at the Municipal Courthouse
located at 700 Couch Drive, Oklahoma City, OK 73102.
The Municipal Court Public Counter, 405-297-2361, is open for in-person payment
7 a.m. to 7 p.m., 7 days a week.

What should I do if I am pulled over by an OKC Police Officer?
It’s understandable that some people are not sure how to respond when being pulled over by a police officer on a traffic stop. Traffic enforcement is one method utilized to reduce vehicle accidents, injuries, and property damage on our streets. Traffic stops are also conducted in the course of investigating crimes. It may be helpful to understand why officers must take certain safety precautions when making traffic stops.
Officer safety is very important on traffic stops.

A person being pulled over by the police should be aware the officer is participating in a potentially dangerous part of police work. In the annual report by the FBI on officers killed in the line of duty, traffic stops are always in the top three incidents (along with felonies in progress and domestic disputes). Therefore, we have to train officers to be especially careful and cautious during all traffic stops. For a patrol officer, there is no “routine” traffic stop.

With those potential dangers in mind, let’s “walk through” a typical traffic stop and review some common occurrences. When you first see the red and blue lights flashing in your rear view mirror, the officer could be trying to pull you over or just pass you en route to an emergency call. You should use your signal and change lanes to the right, coming to a stop as safely as possible. If the officer is stopping you, the officer will pull in behind you. If the traffic stop is at night, the officer will use spotlights to light up the interior of your vehicle for safety reasons. You and all occupants of your vehicle should avoid getting out of the car, unless directed otherwise by the officer. The officer will approach your car while trying to stay out of passing traffic. Officers appreciate drivers who turn off their car radio; it makes the officer’s job of communicating with you a little easier.

Officer safety training calls for the officer to watch the hands of all occupants. This is done so an officer is aware of the actions a person takes inside the vehicle. Keep in mind that the officer rarely knows anything about the person he or she is pulling over, so staying calm and keeping your hands where the officer can see them is appreciated.

Depending on the circumstances, the police officer will often first ask to see your driver’s license and proof of insurance. (On a related note, you do not have to carry your vehicle registration with you in Oklahoma. It is also a good idea to get rid of all of those expired insurance verification forms, they are of no value anymore and just keep you detained on the traffic stop longer as you have to thumb through them.) Once these essential preliminaries are taken care of, the officer will generally advise you of the reason for the stop. If you have a factual response to the reason for the stop mentioned by the officer, you can mention it to the officer.

The officer will then return to his or her scout car to run some computer checks. Please stay in your vehicle during the traffic stop, unless the officer requests otherwise. Sometimes these checks are fairly quick, while other times the officer has to wait in line and it takes a bit longer. After running these checks, the officer will determine what if any enforcement action is appropriate. The officer will then return to your vehicle and discuss the situation with the driver. If a citation is issued, the officer will ask you to sign it. Traffic citations are not pronouncements of guilt. By signing the citation, you are not admitting any guilt. The suspected traffic violator will sometimes disagree with the officer's observation. Because everyone is entitled to due process, the proper forum to dispute the merits of a traffic citation is before a municipal court judge. Whatever the outcome, the officer generally wants you to be back on your way in a timely manner. It’s always a good idea to carefully pull back out into traffic after the stop.

Police officers realize that some people don’t necessarily enjoy being stopped by the police. We hope this information will be beneficial and provide some context to why certain things occur. Traffic stops can be a relatively positive encounter, especially if they result in safer driving in our community. The next time you see an Oklahoma City Police Officer making a traffic stop, know that the officer is working to keep our streets safe for you and your family.

To achieve this mission the Police Department, like many other organizations, has an obligation to provide direction to employees, measure their achievements, and allow opportunities for professional growth and development. It is important for every organization to convey to its employees what is expected of them. We are committed to pro-actively making a real difference in the public safety of our community. We’re proud of the work done by our organization, and don’t shy away from accountability and efforts to improve when it comes to public safety.

When the Police Department uses the term “activity,” it is just another way of describing the overall diverse workload a patrol officer handles in a given shift. Police work can be challenging because officers are called upon to handle a cross-section of duties. Some of the things they spend their time doing on an average shift might include answering calls for service, patrolling neighborhoods and businesses, making felony and misdemeanor arrests, investigating traffic accidents, helping other officers on criminal investigations, or enforcing traffic laws to reduce accidents, injuries & property damage. All of these activities and many more are an important part of what constitute police work for a patrol officer.

In 1999, a new Activity Tracking System was researched and implemented. A series of committee meetings were convened during the research phase in which numerous members of the police department, from the rank of Officer to Major, were involved. The purpose of the meetings was to research and place weights on the various activities performed by patrol officers. During the meetings, over 20 different activities were identified that field officers perform on a routine basis. The idea was not to require an officer to perform any specific quantity of any one category, but instead allow officers to log points for performing a wide array of police work. Additionally, a reasonable number of workload points were identified for officers to demonstrate. Most occupations have some sort of minimum workplace standards, and police work is no different.

In late 2001, Police Department staff wanted
to statistically evaluate the data being tracked. An associate professor of
economics at Oklahoma City University (OCU) was contacted. The professor
agreed to review one year of collected data from the Activity Tracking
System and perform a statistical analysis.

After completion of the analysis, two conclusions were reached. The first conclusion was the data being collected was statistically valid and had meaningful purpose because of the following reasons: 1) the error rate of the data was low, 2) there was validity and security in the method the department was collecting the data, and 3) the department was collecting over 20 data points for review (he stated 6-8 were good, but 20 were outstanding). The second conclusion reached was that officers should be compared to other officers on their shift and in their own division.

The Police Department continued with the evaluation process after the analysis was completed. Police Department staff realized the value of the data and the need to restrict comparisons to officers on the same shift and in the same division.

Currently, officers assigned to the Police Department’s Operations Bureau rely on the Activity Tracking System to document their efforts. The information obtained from the Activity Tracking System allows supervisors to recognize officers for exceptional performance or other performance trends by employees.

How the program works is very straightforward. Every field officer completes a daily activity sheet during their shift that categorizes over 20 different activities. Some examples of these categories are how many felons the officer arrested, how many calls for service the officer handled, how many traffic accidents were investigated, how many drunk drivers arrested, etc. This data is then entered into the tracking program. The Activity Tracking System then calculates the overall points officers accumulated based on their actual workload that shift – combining all the workload categories together into one average. In other words, no single category in this program requires any specific number. The Activity Report includes the average points per hour each officer accumulated which then allows for peer comparison. The goal was to have officers out doing a diverse cross section of police work, with that workload being reflected by this program. It is important to note that training-time, court-time or special assignment-time is not considered in an officer’s average points per hour. The Activity Tracking System is simply a flexible tool that allows the Police Department to assess workload performance and evaluate our overall efforts.

The motto of the OKC Police Department is, “We Serve With Pride.” We are proud of our hard working patrol officers who are out day and night on the front lines providing a dedicated and professional police service to the citizens of Oklahoma City.

What should I do if I receive a questionable e-mail about safety in Oklahoma City?
The Internet is a great source of information, but e-mails passed around can also be the source of misinformation.
OKC Police occasionally get contacted by citizens who received a forwarded e-mail involving various warnings about public safety issues around Oklahoma City. Sometimes these e-mails contain inaccurate information that can cause misplaced fear. It seems the more shocking or scary the e-mails, the more it gets mass forwarded around the Internet. It's easy to see how Internet hoaxes and urban legends can take on a life of their own.

The best way to fight misinformation is with facts. We're committed to enhancing the safety and well-being of everyone in Oklahoma City. One simple way we can serve you in that goal is to be a resource if you ever receive one of these questionable e-mails about any safety issue in Oklahoma City. Before forwarding it on, you're welcome to give us a chance to review the validity of the issue to see if there is any truth to it. You can do that by forwarding your inquiry to ocpd.pio@okc.gov. We'll check into anything that involves your safety in Oklahoma City, and let you know what we find out. Working together, we'll make sure you have the facts that will truly help keep you safe.